Poem

As We Begin

I live inside this outer shell, inside living a life of hell
Strangers words & ugly stares, makes me believe no one cares
In a world filled with pain & terror, what is reflected in my mirror?
Who is that? Where am I? Things are bad, I want to cry.
The answer is near, problem solved. Now watch me as I evolve.
From caterpillar to butterfly, now the world just dances by
No painful words or shameful tears, I've added to life better years.

Kellie Ricker

Well, I made it through my first couple of days at work with no problem. My daily food choices consist of a protein shake for breakfast, cottage cheese for lunch, popcicles for snack, and yesterday I had Wendy's chili for dinner. Mind you, I only ate 2 tablespoons of each. I think the Wendy's chili would last me 4 meals.

Me and Bill went to Olive Garden today for lunch and I ate some Minestrone soup. Man the bread sticks looked good and I so wanted salad. I'm not quite at that stage yet. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I'll be able to eat the salad.

Eating out is definitely a challenge at this point. Overall, I'm very pleased with my surgery. Thankfully, I've had no problems at this time.

I'm waiting for my energy level to pick-up which hasn't happened yet but I try and not let that stop me from what I need to do. Me and Bill have been walking the KOA (great hill for a great workout) every other night right now. I only do my 2 miles at this point but will hopefully be back up to 4 miles in no time.

Tonight is blues night with some friends. I can't wait to relax and listen to the music.

Getting Started

Well, I had my gastric bypass on August 3, 2009. The lead up to it was exciting, anxiety, doubts, fears, tears, lots of hard work. My journey started in December 2008 with a seminar at Wilford Hall in San Antonio, TX. It was exciting learning all the options that were out there for me. It was frustrating thinking that their program required:
6 month nutrition supervised diet
Sleep study
Cardiac echo
Blood work
Mammogram
Pap smear
Pysch evaulation
Swallow study

I thought man I'll never get through that. But, I'm so grateful that I went this route. I've learned so much before surgery and I think that will make me even more successful. Patience has paid off.

The team at Wilford Hall is exceptional. The support group even better. I really miss that I won't be able to attend those every month. It doesn't help that I live 3 hours away. I have found support through some on-line groups and friends who have been through this process.

Today I'm 39 pounds down from when I originally started in December 2008 and 24 pounds down since surgery.